Pirates Mega Event

There have been a couple of posts on the Pirates Mega Event in the ToA forum. Most were doom and gloom. I didn’t have an opinion since I’d never had the event.

Sure enough, the Pirates Mega Event struck not a day later in my game as the Terrans in a huge galaxy, painful difficulty, and 6 random opponents (which ended up being Altarians, Drath, Torians, Krynn, Arceans, and Thalians – a good and neutral lot). The year was 2231, and although there were a few short minor wars all was more or less quiet. Perhaps peace and tranquility is one of the triggers for the Pirate Mega Event?

Image 1: The Galaxy in 2231 Before the Slaughter

It soon became apparent that there were hundreds or thousands of pirate ships and fleets all over the map. All had beam weapons and shields, which was annoying since my weapon of choice was beam. Overall the Pirate ships were twice as effective as mine in teams of weaponry (50 attack vs 24 attack for my best medium hull cruiser), and they had good shields while I had none.

Image 2: Pirate Infestation

The Plan

I decided at the beginning of the Mega Event that this was an opportunity. My strategy was to kill what I could, scrap the rest of my fleet that couldn’t fight, reduce military spending to zero, and put all my resources on social spending and research. After all, the Pirates were overwhelmingly strong, but were static. Eventually I’d be able to field ships that were vastly superior to their. Then vengeance would be mine!

Hunker Down

So, what to do? I formed up my ships (which had a modest speed advantage) into fleets and sent them to die gloriously and destroy what they could. Fleets abandoned the planets and headed out to defend the galactic resource starbases if they could. Leaving planets defenseless didn’t bother me since the Pirates have no transports, so who needs planet defenses? Also note that the AI gets pretty passive when their military is wiped out and it is highly unlikely that they will declare war. Even if they did declare war on me a lone transport would likely not make it to my planets due to the Pirates waiting to kill them, and my ground combat rating is huge (maxed ground combat plus Tir Quan) so I’d take losses but not lose the planet.  

My few cruiser fleets did succeed in killing Pirate fleets, but there were so many that any UFP survivors were summarily destroyed. In a few turns almost my entire combat fleet was eliminated. I scrapped everything that couldn’t fight – constructors, a dozen transports, survey ships, and early combat ships with a pathetically low attack factor. In short order the Pirates had destroyed almost every resource starbase, combat ship, and support ship of every race.  Trade routes collapsed after freighters were repeatedly destroyed. The Pirates generally stayed around the planets to destroy any ship as soon as it was constructed. Obviously, constructing ships with Pirates infesting the galaxy is worse than useless.

Image 3: Military Collapse

In the end I was amazingly fortunate. Three of my galactic resource starbases survived: two fully armed and build out economic and a military resource starbase. The first eco starbase had its fleet die defending it, but it had enough weaponry to (barely) fight off remaining attacks by lone pirates. The isolated military resource starbase had one cruiser and one destroyer (small hull) that survived the onslaught, gaining lots of experience. I immediately upgraded these ships, and they easily won their battles with lone Pirates. I noted that two of the three starbases that survived were far away from planets. All the other starbases had hordes of hideously strong Pirate fleets attack in waves until they went down.

I also had the Fleeting Fleet – two cruisers and seven destroyers that formed up and fled from Torian space in a desperate race to my home territory. My logistics was only 15 so they formed up into two squadrons. When some were damaged or a ship was lost they reformed to help other ships repair and maximize their pitiful fleet combat strength (~50/0/0; no defense). The Pirate fleets ranged from 80/0/0 attack and 40/0/0 defense to 140/0/0 attack and 60/0/0 defense. Obviously I was terribly outclassed. The Fleeting Fleet made the LONG trek from the northern part of the map to the southeastern Military Starbase, losing most of the destroyers along the way. They made a point of staying away from planets, killing lone Pirate fighters, and running like frightened little girls if any Pirate fleet got anywhere near them. All told it was a heroic journey, and by all accounts they should have been destroyed. Their upgrades and experience made them formidable. When they combined with the surviving cruiser and destroyer at the military starbase they formed the core of my new fleet that would eventually take the offense.

Image 4: The Fleeting Fleet

After the slaughter by the Pirates I focused on research (~70%) and social (30%).  I prioritized finishing my extreme colonization so those planets would be at 100 production. The destruction of my other economic starbases and collapse of trade routes hurt, but fortunately I still had a surplus. The AI’s economies tanked pretty quickly. For a while there was even a doubling economic event, which did a great job filling my coffers and I was able to buy most of the Achievements and Wonders. I was cautious about increasing my manufacturing since the costs can cripple your economy. Within about a year I researched Xeno Ethics and selected neutral to get Neutrality Research Centers. The five minor races I’d conquered were fitted out for research, so they became my research hubs.

I also researched the advanced government techs and level 2 farms to bump my population (and economic performance and influence). Tiles made available from terraforming techs (which I got immediately since I’m neutral) were built out as farms (one per planet), banks, the Galactic Wonders and Achievements, and occasionally industry or research.

When development and infrastructure were in place it was time to up-gun my military. I then blitzed to Phaser 2, advanced shields (invulnerability), Advanced Logistics, and Advanced Starbase Fortification II. All of this research and development took 3 years. Throughout this time I upgraded my lone fleet of destroyers and cruisers at the southeastern Military Starbase – expensive, but necessary.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold

Starting in 2234 I focused my primary production planets (including New Earth, my manufacturing capital) to start building military ships while keeping my budget allocation 0/30/70 military/social/research. My new ships exceeded the Pirate’s combat and defensive strength and movement, but I had to be careful since there were MANY more pirates. By and large the new Terran ships ran away until they were able to form a complete fleet. My ships sported heavy armor, advanced shields, and superior weaponry.

Thus was born the first United Federation of Plants Fleet of Retribution. This fleet was fast and would dash in and methodically eliminate the Pirate fleets infesting UFP home territory. I lost a few destroyers and rarely a cruiser, but by and large the Pirates died. Damaged ships could repair at planets, but I made sure there were sufficient replacements to keep the fleets at near full strength. My ships scored many kills (and experience), but had to spend a long time repairing.

Image 5: Four Pirate Frigates Blast a Cruiser

Image 6: UFP Fleet of Retribution

Normally my games are essentially over by 2231 and I never have much need to research the spiffy military technology such as Fleet Bubbles, fleet fire control, advanced armor, and Huge hulls. In this game the hordes of Pirates game me every incentive to get any advantage. My conclusion is that Fleet Bubbles, advanced firepower fleet modules, and advanced armor can do amazing things to improve the effectiveness and survivability of my fleets. My level 3 Warp Bubble and firepower module were put on a Battle Cruiser command ship, which had heavy armor and defense and some firepower. My ships-of-the-line were cruisers, which sported slightly more firepower than shields and at least a few armor modules.

Image 7: Battlecruisers in Action

Image 8: Cruisers – Fire!

I was very pleasantly surprised by my huge-hulled Dreadnaughts. These babies got lots of armor, phasers, and shields and could take on a Pirate fleet all by themselves! After the military resource multipliers they had over 150 HPs right out of the shipyards, and an offense of 151 beam and 140 in shields. I don’t think I’ve ever built ships so powerful, and I’ve certainly never gotten to so near the end of the military tech tree.

Image 9: Awesome Dreadnaught

Image 10: The Star Fleet Battles-style Dreadnaught

UFP Territory Secured

One of the irritating problems was that there were Pirates hiding all over the map. Leaving some of these pesky fleets or lone fighters behind the lines is not a good idea – so I researched the entire Sensor technology line and build Super Scouts and survey ships to light up the galaxy. These puppies moved speed 15 so they could run, flashbulb an area, and at the same time snag all the anomalies that had accumulated in the 3 years after the Pirates arrived. Eventually they’d tended to get trapped and destroyed by swarming Pirates, but they more than paid for themselves with all the cash and free racial abilities they accumulated. Those that did survive were used as fleet scouts for hunt and destroy missions. I also built the Eyes of the Universe, which is endlessly useful for scouting territory and finding the enemy.

One fleet became two, and then three. The UFP fleets spread out and methodically eliminated all pirates. As we eliminated them we reclaimed the galactic resources in our territory and parked a few ships on them to ensure they were not destroyed by a rogue Pirate. The perimeter of secured area was steadily pushed outward.

Image 11: Fleets in Action – Fast and Very Furious

But the UFP had planets in far flung portions of the galaxy. Securing those meant that the perimeter had to expand relentlessly, which required that more ships and fleets to be built. Can this be done? Absolutely! Can I afford it? Yes – with a huge population, good development, and an expanding number of economic starbases this was do-able.

The only race to help prune the Pirates was the Thalians, who got a Lucky Ranger. The Ranger never left their home planet (as far as I could tell), but Pirate fleets in Thalian space declined significantly. I image they started to suicide attack the Ranger, which had more than enough firepower to take out Pirate fleets. The Thalians started claiming back galactic resources near their territory, but only a few since there were still too many Pirates in their space who were all too eager to kill starbases.  The Ranger gave the Thalians a BIG bump in their military standing.  

So for a while the UFP paused to accumulate new fleets at the edges of our home territory. Some clusters of far-flung planets (such as former Minor Race worlds) build cruisers and destroyers as a core for new battle groups, but by and large they waited until our fleet perimeter had expanded.

The expansion of the UFP fleet perimeter included constructors so we could claim galactic resources – the prizes for all of our efforts to help our friends. After an area had been largely cleared the resource would be claimed and a battle group would be stationed on the resource, and striking out as Pirates got too close or as opportunity arose. Although it was selfish, we let the Pirates continue to infest the core territory of the other races for a while, but when we could we sent a fleet to eliminate the rogues.

Cleanup

By mid 2235 there were only pockets of Pirates left in the galaxy. The Torian, Thalian, and Drath territory had been mostly cleansed. The Arceans had surrendered to the Krynn in ~2233 so they were not an issue. The UFP expanded beyond the galactic resources we had secured in ever widening circles.

Image 12: UFP Military Supremacy

As we claimed and build up more and more military resources the battles became truly lopsided. By this time my cruisers had HPs of over 100, and even some of my Level 20 (!!) destroyers from the Fleeting Fleet had HPs of around 60.

In the meantime our expanding influence had planets flipping all over the place, and especially near former Minor Race worlds. I helped this along by building influence-enhancing structures, which in combination with influence techs and a high population was quite powerful. Eventually even the Torians (who had build the Restaurant of Eternity) started flipping here and there.

All the while all the other races were Close, and I could have had an Alliance victory any time after 2232. But I was having so much fun pasting the nasty Pirates that I decided I would have my alliance victory AFTER the nasty brutes had been reduced to space junk. Plus, that is the UFP-like thing to do.

I got my well deserved Alliance victory in May 2236.

As an interesting side note, the Thalian technically won months before. He was allied with all the other races but me. As an experiment I offered an alliance to him and he accepted. Then I hit TURN and…nothing. There was no Thalian alliance victory, so I assume that means the AI can’t win an alliance victory but the human player can.

Interesting…